OUR TEENS DESERVE ANSWERS: REQUEST FOR A FORMAL REVIEW OF TEEN SUICIDES, DEATHS, AND SAFETY CONCERNS IN DORA AND SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES

We are asking Walker County District Attorney Bryan Warren to conduct, request, or facilitate a thorough review of recent suicides, deaths, and serious safety concerns involving teenagers age 16 and older in Dora and surrounding communities in Walker County, Alabama. The loss of a teenager is devastating to a family and to an entire community. When young lives are lost, families are left with difficult questions. Were warning signs recognized? Were concerns reported? Were these young people asking for help? Were those concerns properly investigated? Were the appropriate agencies notified? Were there circumstances involving abuse, neglect, threats, harassment, coercion, exploitation, or other unlawful conduct that should have been investigated? Were previous investigations complete and thorough? We are not asking the District Attorney to assume that any person or organization is responsible. We are asking that these questions be examined and that the evidence be followed wherever it leads.

We respectfully ask District Attorney Bryan Warren to review recent suicides and other deaths involving teenagers age 16 and older in Dora and surrounding communities; examine whether there are common circumstances, warning signs, reports, complaints, or other patterns that deserve additional investigation; review whether safety concerns involving these teenagers were appropriately reported, documented, and investigated; determine whether there is evidence of criminal conduct or other unlawful activity that may have contributed to a teenager's circumstances or death; review whether previous investigations were sufficiently thorough and independent; determine whether additional records or evidence should be preserved and examined; provide an opportunity for concerned parents, families, friends, and community members to provide relevant information; and take whatever lawful action the evidence supports. We understand that suicide is complex and that no death should be reduced to a single explanation without evidence. We understand that investigations must protect the rights and privacy of everyone involved. This petition is not an accusation of guilt against any particular person, parent, caregiver, teenager, organization, or agency. Signing this petition means that you believe these circumstances deserve to be examined carefully, impartially, and based upon evidence.

Families deserve to know that reasonable questions have been asked. Teenagers deserve to know that their safety matters. Parents and families deserve to know that concerns about their loved ones will be taken seriously. Our community deserves confidence that every reasonable investigative avenue has been considered. We respectfully ask District Attorney Bryan Warren to listen to the families, review the information, follow the evidence, preserve relevant records, identify anything that may have been overlooked, and take appropriate action if the evidence establishes that action is necessary. Please sign this petition if you believe the circumstances surrounding recent suicides, teen deaths, and safety concerns involving teenagers age 16 and older in Dora and surrounding communities deserve a formal review. One signature is one voice. Together, our voices are a community asking for answers. PROTECT OUR TEENS. LISTEN TO OUR FAMILIES. FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE.